FIG. 1 illustrates an operating environment 100 for a data storage system in which storage controllers 120 service operation requests or commands issued from a managing entity 110 to replicate data between storage media 140 and 150. After a storage controller 120 performs a requested operation, an acknowledgement is submitted from the storage controller 120 to the managing entity 110 to confirm the completion of the requested operation.
If the acknowledgement is not received by the managing entity 110, for example, due to data loss during transmission, the managing entity 110 will demand for the operation to be performed again, by resubmitting the prior request. Disadvantageously, repeated requests results in duplicate performance of the requested operation. Such additional operations are redundant and undesirable.
Furthermore, in data storage systems with a plurality of storage controllers 120, different storage controller implementations may be present. In such systems, the managing entity 110 will have to support the corresponding proprietary replication algorithm for each storage controller. As such, it is possible that a managing entity will have to be configured to support multiple different types of replication algorithms.
The above-noted lack of unified approach and the requirement for acknowledging each request results in excessive overhead, which is expensive and also burdensome for an administrator of the storage system. Thus, methods and systems are needed that can overcome the aforementioned shortcomings.